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20150601

Over the last couple of years, hobby time has been at a premium, and what time I've had has been dedicated to a project that I can say I'm very excited to announce here! (Albeit a little late in doing so!)

Maelstrom's Edge is a far future science fiction setting where a golden age of exploration and innovation has been ripped apart and humanity is on the very edge of annihilation. The Maelstrom, a gigantic apocalyptic explosion of dark energy, is rapidly expanding out from the heart of the galaxy, destroying everything it touches. As worlds and stars are obliterated from existence, those who have the means flee towards deep space, while those left behind fight for the chance to escape.

For millennia before this catastrophe, humanity spread across the galaxy at sub-light speed, painstakingly eking out an existence in space and on barely habitable worlds. Then the cybel network was discovered. A gossamer web of dark energy threads stretching between every star, the cybel network allowed humanity to colonise thousands of worlds across the galaxy's spiral arm. All the progress that the cybel network brought, the Maelstrom took away. The Maelstrom erupted from the centre of humanity's worlds a millennium ago, racing down the cybel tunnels, splitting them apart and spilling their destructive energy out into real space.

The Edge is a stormfront, light years wide, where real space meets the Maelstrom’s tide of roiling, coruscating energy. The apocalypse is coming inexorably to every planet on the Edge. In the decades leading up the Maelstrom's arrival, every person is forced to make a choice about how they want to live the remainder of their existence. Unite or divide, give or take, fight or die. Those living on the edge are not bulletproof or elite. They are ordinary people caught up in a bewildering cataclysm, their only goal to survive as best they can.

The destruction wrought by the Maelstrom has led to conflict between many of the remaining organisations and governments. The competing corporations of the Epirian Foundation made their fortunes using advanced robotics and geo-engineering to alter worlds for colonisation. Now as the Maelstrom approaches, the Epirians are forced to abandon these worlds, using their enlisted soldiers and retrofitted robots to defend their interests.

Diametrically opposed to the Epirian Foundation’s interests are the Karist Enclave, a secretive group of religious zealots. They believe that if you are mentally and physically prepared, the Maelstrom will not destroy you, but instead you will ascend to a higher plane of existence. The Karists use vials of altered cybel energy to 'commune' with the Maelstrom, achieving a trance-like state they associate with ascension.

The refugees, revolutionaries, pirates and mercenaries that are left behind on abandoned worlds are collectively known as the Broken. Poor humans team up with abandoned aliens, desperately swarming worlds near the edge as they try to survive as long as they can. Against the implacable onslaught of the Maelstrom, every dockworker, farmer, CEO and mercenary is faced with the same dilemma: what will you do to survive?

It's been a long haul to get to this point and the Kickstarter will successfully wrap up just about 2 days from now! I'll be sharing more from Maelstrom's Edge in future posts to include my armies, painting breakdowns, terrain and even conversion work. I'll also share art assets I've created for the game as things progress as well! So be sure to head over and check it out, share and back if you like what you see! It's going to be a crazy ride seeing this hit shelves in the coming year!

20140121

After a lot of work and probably one too many breaks, I've finally finished this set of conversions! I've learned a lot along the way for conversion work. This is also probably the most converting I've done in a while/ever.

The conversion side of things was pretty straight forward, with the torsos from the Plastic Farseer kit being greenstuffed to the legs of the jetbike riders. After that dried I used greenstuff to sculpt the flowing robes in a split duster fashion around the rear of the jetbikes. On the farseer I used some leftover greenstuff to sculpt a big gem on the jetbike.

For the paint I used VMC German Grey as a base, washed heavily with Badab Black and then highlighted back up to German Grey. I then used GW The Fang for a starter line highlight and then gave it a final line highlight of Fenrisian Grey. The freehand on the Farseer was done with Fenrisian Grey.

The metals were painted by basecoating the areas in Necron Compound, washing them with Devlan Mud, then highlighting with another selective layer of Necron Compound. I then washed the metals again with Devlan Mud. The blade was then given a few small washes of black to strengthen the offset of the highlighting.

Gems were done in the standard method and given a layer of VMC Gloss Medium.

Glad to have them done at long last, but these guys and the two other commissioned models really have helped me get back in the swing of things with wargaming. I'll hopefully be able to keep up the momentum and getting new models up more often!

20140117

Another commission model! A good work up to the trio of jetbikes I have on my plate for the next round of paint and a nice break from all of the Space Marines I usually end up painting!

This model started off a lot differently than it ended up. I had planned to work the whites using a sepia wash and work up, but for some reason the warm colors just didn't fit the model, and the other warm tones on top of the white weren't working for me either. So I scrapped the idea and moved back to a lot of the same paint colors I used on a Harlequin model for the same friend.

The robes and white armor are done using The Fang blue base, worked up to Fenrisian Grey and finally a touch of VMC Off-White. I did a little color wash/glazing in the recesses when it needed some more depth.

Black areas were highlighted with The Fang and given a secondary highlight of Fenrisian Grey.

The metallics were all done by base coating the area in Necron Compound Silver and washing heavily with Devlan Mud so that it hung heavy in some spots and lighter in others. Once dry, I went back in with Silver and touched up some edges and upward facing areas. The blade faces were washed a little with Badab Black using some care to offset where the black pooled on the blade sides.

Gems were done using a black base, VMC Purple toward the lower edges, highlighted with 50/50 Purple/Off-White, a second level of highlights with 25/75 Purple/Off-White and a final dot highlight of white in the upper corner.

Pouches were painted Black and highlighted with Bestial Brown and given a final highlight of Snakebite Leather. Both were done in a line highlight fashion along predominate edges.

The base was done with a base coat of Bestial Brown, drybrushed with Bleached Bone and then washed heavily with Devlan Mud. Static Grass was added after sealing the model.

20140112

Continuing to get myself back into the hobby, I've been working on some commission jobs for a few friends. To start things off I got cracking on a Logan Grimnar. This is my first chance at this model, and I have to say I'm a little glad I've never worked that much with Finecast. It's just a terrible medium with tons of pits and unfilled detail. Though once I got through that bit with a little greenstuff fix up, filing and filling, I was able to really dig in with the paint.

Overall the model follows my standard Space Wolves paint scheme. The only real difference being the black shoulder pad which used a little VMC German Grey washed with Badab Black and highlighted with a little Fortress Grey. The wolf and star are freehand, unfortunately no white wolf decals on the Space Wolf decal sheets!

20130711

As part of their annual charity push, NOVA Open has a three raffles going on that anyone can participate in!

Raffle tickets are a dollar each to a minimum of 10, please help support these worthy charities while getting a chance at winning one of these beautifully painted armies! You do not need to attend the NOVA at all to participate, and 0% of the funds go toward the event and all moneys go to the intended charities.